Bill Gates says Brexit would make UK less attractive

Bill Gates is the latest influential figure to wade into the Brexit debate, making the case that a vote to leave the EU next week would only serve to hinder British business.

Gates argued that a Brexit would make the UK a "significantly less attractive place to do business and invest."

The Seattle-born Microsoft founder – the world's richest person with a net worth of $75bn according to Forbes – gave his opinion in a letter to The Times.

While noting that it was a decision entirely for the British people, he pointed out that Britain's EU membership had played a key role in his decision to place Microsoft's research facilities in Cambridge.

Gates wrote of Brexit:

"It will be harder to find and recruit the best talent from across the Continent; talent which, in turn, creates jobs for people in the UK.

"And, it would be harder to raise the investment needed for public goods such as new medicines and affordable clean energy solutions, for which we need the scale of collaboration, knowledge sharing, and financial backing that the combined strength of the EU provides."

In other Bill Gates news, the philanthropist has inadvertently angered Bolivian officials this week.

A new initiative from Gates plans to donate 100,00 chickens to people living in poverty across the globe, including those in Bolivia. However, the country has rejected the offer, which it sees as nothing short of insulting.

Bolivia's rural development minister Cesar Cocarico said:

"I find it rude, because unfortunately some people, especially in the empire [the United States], still see us as beggars.